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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Game 136 Recap - Astros 2, Pirates 0

When your pitching staff goes out and gives you a performance where they only give up two runs, only one of which was earned, you need to win those ball games 95% of the time. The Pirates have had no such luck as the offensive continued to struggle in getting swept in Houston.

James McDonald was OK, but not great. He went six innings and gave up both runs, both in the fourth inning, only one of them being earned. Again McDonald struggled with pitch count and threw 94 pitches through the six innings while also walking two. It wasn’t a bad outing but he did get himself into trouble but was good enough to work out of it, which included a bases loaded, no out jam in the third inning where he didn’t let in a run.

The offense was again atrocious. Just terrible. J.A. Happ came into the game with over a six ERA and all Happ did was throw seven shutout innings striking out six and only giving up three hits. The Pirates only had four hits and no player had more than one. Just tough to watch.

I must say that I have put a lot of this on the Pirates but I am pretty impressed with the young guys the Astros have in the system. They hit the ball pretty well and with the speed some of these guys had it made it very hard on the Pirates defense at times. Some of these guys came straight up to the majors from AA and you wouldn’t be able to tell. The Pirates might have lost a game or two in this series but the Astros were no slouches. Their pitching staff was very good and their hitters got the hits when they needed them.

The Bucs get to come home tomorrow for one game and then they go to Wrigley Field for a three game set against the Cubs. Right now I have no idea how the Pirates are going to win a game.